Reddit reviews Fermtech Wine/Beer Thief, 19 Long

For my own recommendation I would say do an extract beer can kit. You'll get about 40 bottles of beer out of it.

Almost everything below you can get at your local homebrew shop. In fact, many of these items might be part of a "beer starter kit" etc. I do recommend getting the 5 gallon carboy instead of a kit with pails. You'll thank me later. pails can get messy.

1. Coopers Brew Can Kit ($15) *comes with yeast you need
   
2. A 5 gallon carboy (I recommend a big mouth plastic one) ($20)
   
3. An Airlock for your carboy ($5)
   
4. A 4 foot blowoff tube to attach to the airlock center column ($5)
   
5. An empty 2L pop bottle to use as the blowoff container. (free)
   
6. 1KG of sugar *and some more for bottling later ($2)
   
7. A Hydrometer to take your Specific Gravity readings and a container for the hydrometer $25
   
8. A 5 Gallon pot $30 (I highly recommend you follow the kit or use 3 gallons of water during the heating/boiling as I have done...dont try to boil 5 gallons in a 5 gallon pot)
   
9. An Auto-Siphon for siphoning the beer. $13
   
10. A Wine Thief for stealing the samples from your beer (which you read with the hydrometer and then drink) without disturbing the beer too much and risking infection. $13
    
    Total $128 by my guestimates, but you do get 2 cases of beer out of it and $113 worth of brew equipment. Hell, in Ontario the two cases of beer can easily be more expensive than $128 lol... Not cheap, but everything here you will use over and over and over again (except of course the sugar and the brew kit)
    
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    The Coopers Can Kit comes with instructions to make your beer, a hopped extract and yeast.
    
    After you make your beer it'll be a few weeks before the fermentation is done (which you'll know by hydrometer readings)
    
    In that time you can start getting your stuff together for bottling and carbonating them.
    
    You'll also need (for bottling) 48 empty clean bottles (cleaned and then sanitized with star-san solution) NON TWIST OFF TYPE
    A handheld Beer capper
    Bottle caps (box)
    
    
    I gotta run, but this was fun to type out. If you need any help, glad to help ya.

6.5gal plastic fermentor - $17.88 (Don't bother with glass fermentors!)

6.5gal Bottling Bucket - $18.81

Hydrometer - $12.99

3 3-piece airlocks - $5.00 - trust me, they'll break.

stopper not needed with plastic fermentor

Bottle filler - $5.09

10 ft 3/8th inch tubing - $10.99

Auto siphon - $8.76

don't need a bottle brush with plastic fermentor

144 bottle caps - $5.78

Use any pure sugar for priming - just calculate it right. I use cane sugar without issue.

Wing bottle capper - $15.48

Dial thermometer not really needed if you're slapping on an adhesive one, but definitely get this for a hot liquor tun if you're doing that.

Wine thief - $11.20

I never used a funnel or fermentor brush - you can use anything to clean but I suggest Oxyclean rinses

32oz Star San - $20.70

Adhesive Thermometer - $4.84

Total Cost: $137.52. Not ridiculous savings BUT you get 32oz of star san instead of 4oz of io-star which will last you years and sanitizer is expensive. You get a plastic fermentor instead of glass which is so much easier to clean and keep light out. Glass carboys are good for aging and aging is good for wine or special beers. Focus on simple ales that don't require it first.

The real savings come when you do all grain and make your own equipment. You can save $137 alone if you buy a big stainless steel pot and slap on a dial thermometer with a ball valve.

Of the four things, only the first and third are functional on their own, but here you go...

1. Wine thief. This is used to pull wort and beer out of your fermentor to check the specific gravity
   
2. Racking cane. This needs an auto siphon, but without knowing the diameter of that cane, I couldn't say what size of siphon to get.
   
3. You'd think this was a siphon, but it looks more like another type of wine thief
   
4. Hydrometer test jar... Needs a hydrometer

That kit in your edit looks pretty darn good to me. Bonus for including a hydrometer. I'd probably get that considering the price point (the buckets, capper, and siphon alone make it worth the price). I'm not sure about Idophor, but Starsan can be

Idophor does not foam but take a couple minutes to sanitize. Star san santinizes in 30 seconds and foams quite heavily. The foam isn't harmful and does not need to be rinsed.

The only real advantage of having a car boy is the fact that you can scrub it with an abrasive. It MAY be nice to see where your krausen levels are to determine whether you need a blowoff tube or not, but there's no harm in opening a fermentation bucket just a tad for a little peek.

Yes, you'd basically need two of everything for sours (or at least, everything that touches the beer/wort after it has been infected with the souring bugs).

edit: I just noticed the kit doesn't include a hydrometer test jar or thief to use for hydrometer testing. Not being able to measure gravity will not prevent you from brewing, but it does allow you to; calculate ABV, control ABV pre-fermentation, and identify if problems have occurred during the brewing process.

Keep taste testing every few days, and get it to where you like the taste. I usually leave it alone for 3-5, and then start tasting. Usually every other day or every 3 days after that, depending on the size of the batch, but when it gets closer, I start tasting every day (around the same time of day, so it's a full 24 hours later). After a few batches you'll get the rhythm of when to test and when to leave it.

I grabbed a couple of glass straws (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ZEL23HS/) for stealing only a small amount for tasting. I found that a wine thief took too much liquid out of my smaller batches when I pushed it down in below the super-SCOBY rich layer near the top. Those glass straws are wide (hold a decent amount), easy to use, and reusable -- instead of throwing away disposable plastic straws all the time.

But thieves (https://www.amazon.com/Fermtech-Wine-Beer-Thief-Long/dp/B00BTMWXC6/) are great for larger vessel batches, and getting way down, below the top layers.

http://www.amazon.com/Fermtech-Wine-Beer-Thief-Long/dp/B00BTMWXC6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1420948837&sr=8-2&keywords=wine+thief

I use this one and have been for the last 3+ years. It leaks a few drops when pulled out of the carboy, but it's nothing that I worry about. Length-wise, when I have 5.5G in a 7G carboy, I do need to dip the thief in the carboy twice to fill up a hydrometer tube.

An auto-siphon will work decently as well. I've found when I tilt my auto-siphon to pour the sample into a cup to taste a sample, I get quite a few drops from the base. Your mileage may vary.